Morning Show Fun

After five years of trials, British researchers at Addenbrooke’s Hospital were able to develop a treatment that allowed allergy sufferers to eat peanuts without any adverse reaction. Participants ages seven to 17 were each given a sample of peanut protein in powder form and the dosage was increased over six months. 84% of the 99 children involved in the study were able to eat as many as five peanuts a day and more than 50 percent could eat ten. The treatment is not yet available to the public.

Out of Work, Out of Luck

Many employers, consciously or not, tend to turn down job candidates who have been out of work for a long time. They think there must be something wrong with the candidate. Now, President Barack Obama wants to give those people at least a shot at a job offer. He is issuing an order barring federal agencies from discriminating against the long-term unemployed. And, on Friday, he met with the CEOs of companies like Walgreen’s and Boeing to urge them to do the same.

30 Is the New 20

The age of 30 may be the new 20, judging by the so-called millenial generation. But that’s not a good thing, says a CNBC report. Many of the millennials are hitting 30, and finding that the perks of adulthood are still beyond their grasp. Many work in low-paid dead-end jobs. They’re still living with their parents instead of buying their own first homes. They can’t even consider marriage or parenthood. The unemployment rate remains higher for younger adults than for the general population.

Denver’s Pot Pavilion

This year’s Denver County Fair will feature a new attraction in August: a Pot Pavilion. The Pot Pavilion will feature marijuana-themed exhibits including bongs and other paraphernalia. There will be a laser light show and Grateful Dead karaoke sessions. No marijuana will be for sale, though. While recreational marijuana has been legal since January 1st, public consumption remains against the law.

SUPERBOWL 48

The Game

So much for a classic battle between the NFL’s best offense and its best defense. The Seattle Seahawks routed the Denver Broncos in a 43-8 blowout last night (February 2nd) in Super Bowl 48, a game that went wrong for Denver as soon as it began in relatively balmy 49 degree temperatures in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, despite all the concerns about the elements in the first cold-weather city Super Bowl.

In a “how-did-that-happen” first play, Broncos center Manny Ramirez snapped the ball before quarterback Peyton Manning was in position, sending it flying back to the end zone, where Denver’s Knowshon Moreno dove on it for a Seahawks safety to prevent Seattle from getting a touchdown. It never got much better than that for the Broncos, as Seattle dominated the game and went on to win their first championship in franchise history.

After getting those two opening points, Seattle added two field goals in the first quarter, one for 31 yards and one for 33. Kam Chancellor intercepted Manning early in the second quarter, and Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch later ran the ball in for a touchdown. Then, with about three-and-a-half minutes to go before the half, linebacker Malcolm Smith intercepted the ball and had a 69-yard return touchdown — a “pick-6″ in football-speak — to give Seattle a 22-0 lead going into halftime.

Just as they did at the start of the game, the Seahawks scored on the first play of the second half, this time on Percy Harvin‘s 87-yard kick-off return. Seattle added another touchdown, on a 23-yard pass from quarterbackRussell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse, before the Broncos finally got on the board late in the third quarter on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Manning to Demaryius Thomas. Denver made the two-point conversion, but those were the last points the Broncos would score in the game, in which Seattle’s lauded defense forced four turnovers and never gave five-time MVP Manning much chance to get going. The Seahawks added a final touchdown in the fourth quarter, but by that point, it was pretty much all over but the shouting.

MVP: Seattle’s Malcolm Smith, who made the pick-6 and later recovered a fumble, was named the Super Bowl MVP, only the third linebacker to ever win the award and the first defender in 11 years.

Number 12: The number 12 is important in Seahawks fandom, standing for the “12th Man” — the fans themselves — and it came up big for the team last night, as the plays that Seattle scored on to start the first and second halves both came at 12 seconds in. The first one, on a safety, was the quickest score in Super Bowl history.

Manning’s Record: Peyton Manning now has a Super Bowl record of 1-2, after winning Super Bowl 41 in February 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts, and losing Super Bowl 44 in February 2010 with the Colts, as now this year with the Broncos.

Richard Sherman: Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman, who was the focus of so much attention over the last two weeks for his “rant,” left the game in the fourth quarter with a high ankle sprain.

Seattle’s SportsTitles: Other than the 1978 and 1979 Supersonics in the NBA, this is the only sports championship Seattle has ever won.

Halftime

Commercials

Advertisers paid around $4 million for a 30-second ad, which saw little of the crude jokes, slapstick humor and sexual innuendo of past years in favor of more family-friends spots, featuring patriotism, sentimental scenes, support for causes, and lighter humor. Celebrities were a major theme this year, featured in many of the ads. Here are some of the commercials your listeners may be talking about today (Sound is provided in “Last Night’s TV Audio” for ads in blue):

Doritos — Had two ads

A kid tricks a man into believing he’s made a time machine, which you put a Doritos bag into — so the kid can snack on them.

A boy with a bag of Doritos is lassoed by his little brother, who’s riding the dog cowboy-style.

Turbo Tax – Unless you’re from Seattle or Denver, watching the Super Bowl is like watching a guy named Sean take the girl you liked to the prom.

Bud Light – Had a series of hidden camera ads of a real guy, Ian Rappaport, unknowingly going on a series of adventures, including meeting Don Cheadle with a llama, playing ping-pong against Arnold Schwarzenegger dressed in a goofy wig, and walking into a One Direction concert.

Beats Music — Ellen Degeneres searches for the perfect music to dance to, then kicks up her heels with animal-headed people.

Cheerios — An ad that got some attention before the Super Bowl brings back the interracial family from a previous Cheerios ad, with the dad telling daughter Gracie she’s going to have a baby brother, after which she pushes for getting a puppy.

A woman who wants to be a puppet master quit her job during the commercial.

Another ad that got attention before the Super Bowl, showed race car driver Danica Patrick in a muscle suit running with body builders to get a spray tan.

TMobile – There were two ads featuring popular former NFL player Tim Tebow, showing the things he can do without a contract:

One showed him delivering a baby, catching Bigfoot, speaking at a global summit, and playing on the Moon.

Another showed him competing in a rodeo, saving puppies, onstage as a rock star, and doing car stunts.

Volkswagen – A man tells his daughter that every time a car hits 100,000 miles, a German engineer gets his wings. Cut to a car factory where workers start sprouting big angel wings.

Wonderful Pistachios — Comedian Stephen Colbert, wearing a bright green tie and with an eagle dressed next to him similarly dressed, says the pistachios will sell themselves. After the next commercials, there’s another one with Colbert, with even more branding, including both him and the eagle wearing clothes with the Wonderful brand all over them, as Colbert says they needed to do more since enough pistachios hadn’t sold in 30 seconds.

H&M – David Beckham returns in his underwear, this time running around and taking off his T-shirt as he tries to get back inside after being accidentally locked out during a modeling shoot.

CarMax — A man is slow-clapped by people he passes by as he drives down the street in his “perfect car” from CarMax.

Coca-Cola

Beautiful scenery is shown while “America the Beautiful” is sung in several languages.

A little kid in a football game catches the ball and keeps running past the end zone, out into the street, and all the way to a real football stadium, where he spikes it as a touchdown, after which a groundsman gives him a Coke.

Toyota Highlander — There were two ads featuring the Muppets, one in which a man stops for beat-up bus at side of the road and the Muppets jump in and start singing.

Audi A3 — The “Doberhuahua” — a combination of a Doberman and a Chihuahua — causes all kinds of havoc. Sarah McLachlan, singer of those heart-wrenching “In the Arms of an Angel” animal commercials, guests.

Kia K900 – Morpheus from The Matrix touts the benefits of the K900 luxury car to a couple picking up their valet keys, and breaks into the opera aria, “Nessun Dorma.”

Budweiser – The beer maker had a pair of commercials that made you reach for the tissues:

“Puppy Love,” about a puppy that becomes friends with a Clydesdale and keeps coming back home to him, even after being adopted.

Shows a homecoming parade with Clydesdale for a soldier returning from Afghanistan that Anheuser-Busch helped organize.

Chrysler

Bob Dylan made a rare commercial appearance touting cars made in Detroit, reminiscent of the carmaker’s celebrating Detroit in 2011 that starred Eminem.

An ad for the Ghibli Maserati that looked almost like a movie trailer featured shadowy imagery and a voiceover by young actress Quvenzhane Wallis, who starred in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Hyundai Elantra — Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory navigates a series of obstacles as he tries to pick up a woman driving in a car next to him.

Dannon Oikos – John Stamos is sexily eating a yogurt with a woman when his Full House castmates, Bob Saget and Dave Coulier, burst in and spoil the mood, saying they have to clean up.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee – An ad for Jerry Seinfeld‘s new show on Crackle.com featured Seinfeld and Jason Alexander in their Seinfeld personas at the regular diner. “George” is complaining that he wasn’t invited to a friend’s Super Bowl party, and “Jerry” tells him it was because he “over-cheered” the last time, and “availed himself” of the bathroom in the host’s master bedroom.